
Two manhole explosions shut down Harvard Square Wednesday.
It happened shortly after 8:30 a.m. on Brattle Street. It’s not clear yet what caused the explosions. Eversource raced to disable power to a third manhole near the other two that exploded.
Two manhole explosions shut down Harvard Square Wednesday.
It happened shortly after 8:30 a.m. on Brattle Street. It’s not clear yet what caused the explosions. Eversource raced to disable power to a third manhole near the other two that exploded.
It’s time to tie on your trachten and flex your liter-hoisting muscles: Oktoberfest season returns to Greater Boston. The annual celebration of beer, bratwurst, and brass bands originated in Germany in the early 19th century. In Bavaria this year, it runs from Saturday, Sept. 16 through Tuesday, Oct. 3 — and around Boston, the party extends even longer.
In chronological order, check out these Oktoberfest events at breweries, bars, and beautiful locations around the region to get in the spirit. Prost!
Idle Hands
One of Boston’s original brewing companies, Idle Hands Craft Ales, is known for excellent renditions of classic beers — lagers included. The Malden brewery celebrates its own anniversary in conjunction with Oktoberfest, and the two-for party returns Saturday, Sept. 9, from noon until 9 p.m. There will be a celebrity dunk tank to raise funds for Housing Families. Festive food will include Jaju Pierogi and Lionheart Confections (think: pretzels and German desserts). Live music all day begins with Traditional German and Oktoberfest songs from Natalja Sticco of Mystic Side Opera (12:30-1:30 p.m.), and turns into a polka party with The Beer Hall Boys all afternoon. DJ Bean & Friends closes things out starting at 6 p.m. At 4 p.m., try your hand at an official U.S. stein-hoisting state competition to win an Idle Hands prize pack and entry into the championship happening Oct. 1 at Jack’s Abby. New this year: Discover the Lager Lounge in the back of the brewery, tapping a coveted list of lagers throughout the day. Tickets at the door are $10 and include a souvenir plastic stein and your first beer, or you can pre-order a limited-edition, 20-ounce ceramic stein for $25, which also includes entry and your first round.
Cambridge, MA – Nauset Construction has begun implementing significant building support measures and structural steel upgrades to the Crimson Galeria building in Harvard Square as the owners pivot from office uses to apartments for the planned three-story vertical addition.
The owners originally permitted the building to construct office space on top of the Crimson Galeria, but during the COVID-19 pandemic decided to pursue a residential addition to the building instead, for which they received a Special Permit.
“There is an obvious need for both market-rate and affordable units in this market – certainly more than there is currently for office – and this addition will deliver both,” said Crimson Galeria LP principal Rachna Balakrishna. “We own and operate another mixed-use property with apartments and ground-floor retail in Harvard Square that is always oversubscribed and continues to perform well for us, and we fully anticipate that the Crimson Galeria apartments will also do well.”
Designed by NELSON Worldwide, the new residential addition will be home to 38 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, with approximately 20% designated as affordable. The initial phases of the project began before the pandemic and are now complete. These phases focused on interior upgrades to the existing retail space within the Crimson Galeria, as well as the construction of an Eversource vault to provide increased power for the new addition. To provide additional support for the multifamily units, Nauset is now orchestrating the installation of 42 micropiles, four super columns, and significant additional structural steel building upgrades.
Tensions are rising among police, businesses and homeless people and their advocates about people living on the street in Harvard Square. Police commissioner Christine Elow said Wednesday “a recent influx” has resulted in crime, flamboyant sexual behavior, trash and human waste that officers must deal with, while some homeless people and advocates say police are harassing the homeless and taking away their belongings.
And in Central Square, police are trying to prevent unhoused people from sleeping in a specific place: around the Cambridge Public Library Central Square branch. Police took that step because of “multiple complaints from the neighborhood,” particularly from residents of the Manning Apartments public housing development, which borders a small park between the library and their building, police superintendent Frederick Cabral said.
Cabral said police never order people to leave, contradicting the account of one homeless man and City Council candidate Dan Totten. Cabral said officers assign the department’s homeless outreach team “to that location, and they will work with the people there to connect them to the appropriate services.” Police eventually found a shelter bed for the man, but he stayed only one night and is now living on the street in Harvard Square.
There are few options for someone who wants a place to sleep inside that very night. Unoccupied shelter beds are difficult or impossible to get right now, especially on short notice. Operators of shelters in Cambridge contacted by Cambridge Day said they had no available beds; when there are beds, applicants must often enter a lottery to get one. Two shelters with a total of 40 beds are closed for the summer and most others offer long-term stays for many occupants.
For more than 20 years, this restaurant inside the Charles Hotel was Rialto, where chef Jody Adams made her name and diners’ nights with her warm, sophisticated take on Italian-influenced food. Regulars still miss her slow-roasted duck. It can be hard to move on after a long relationship.
Rialto closed in 2016, and the restaurant became Benedetto, where chef Michael Pagliarini (Giulia, Moëca) served duck, too, inside golden tortelloni wreathed with broccoli rabe, dried cherries, and shavings of Parmigiano. In 2021, Benedetto was replaced with Bar Enza, a collaboration between the hotel and the Lyons Group (behind Scampo, Summer Shack, and many more). Michelin-starred chef Mark Ladner brought meatballs the size of small cabbages, the 100-layer lasagna he was known for at New York’s Del Posto, and momentary buzz. Now Ladner has moved into a corporate role, and Bar Enza has a new executive chef: Tony Susi, whose food you may have eaten over the years in restaurants from Olives to Geppetto to Capo to his own former Sage.
When it comes to culinary talent, that’s an embarrassment of riches. If nothing else, the evolution of the space speaks to how many different ways there are to interpret “Italian restaurant.” Meanwhile, across the lobby, Henrietta’s Table has been serving farm-focused New England fare for almost 30 years. (It and Rialto both opened around the same time as Susi’s tiny nook in the North End.)
The new and bite-sized “25/8 artspace” is lighting up Harvard Square at all hours of the day.
Its first exhibition is “Bikes Move Us,” sculptures that celebrates the political power of bike riding – a potent theme in Cambridge now – by artist Nat Reed.
Rosaline Kovacs, co-owner, pours a glass of wine while working behind the bar at Shay’s Pub & Wine Bar in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Friday, Aug. 11, 2023.
16 spots bound to make you stop saying “I go to school in Boston” and start declaring “I go to school in Cambridge”
Situated across Kendall, Central, and Harvard Squares, students at Harvard and MIT have easy access to some of the best food in the greater Boston area. With both schools perfectly positioned along the Red line, students from one university are no stranger to the food options closest to the other. Diverse options ranging from an Arabic coffee shop to a jazz-themed sushi restaurant to whiskey-forward BBQ joint mean that Harvard and MIT students don’t need to leave Cambridge for a great meal.
Here are 16 spots bound to make you stop saying “I go to school in Boston” and start declaring “I go to school in Cambridge.”
Western Front blazed into Harvard Square last month, becoming the first cannabis dispensary to open in the neighborhood — nearly seven years after Massachusetts legalized recreational marijuana.
With the new location, Western Front becomes the first economic empowerment licensed cannabis company to open a maximum of three dispensaries in Massachusetts. The dispensary, which also boasts storefronts in Chelsea and Central Square, sells a variety of cannabis products as well as pieces from local artists.
Marvin E. Gilmore Jr., 98, and Dennis A. Benzan founded Western Front in 2020 through the economic empowerment licensing program, a Massachusetts initiative that prioritizes licensing cannabis dispensaries owned by or employing Black and Latinx residents and people who live in “geographic areas that have been disproportionately harmed by marijuana prohibition and enforcement,” per the state’s Cannabis Control Commission.
Western Front celebrated the grand opening of its 98 Winthrop St. location with local music, yard games, vendors, and artists in Winthrop Park on July 21.
There have been resets on studying the economic effects of Cambridge bike-lane installations and on outreach to the public when a bike-lane project gets underway, city staff and consultants said in July meetings.
The economic study frustrating business owners in May now has the Volpe National Transportation Center aboard as a consultant and new data sources in place, the center’s Sean Pierce said at a July 17 economic impact study information session for the Cycling Safety Ordinance. The 2019 law calls for nearly 25 miles of protected lanes citywide.
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